As is well-known, conventional aircraft seats are typically supported with an aluminum base frame assembly. Generally, the base frame assembly includes a pair of base frame tubes that extend across the front and rear of the seat, with spreader members that extend longitudinally along each side of the seat and couple to the base frame tubes. Leg assemblies are spaced along the length of the base frame tubes and connected to seat tracks mounted in the floor of the aircraft cabin. The position and spacing of the spreader members and leg assemblies may vary for different types of seats and different seating arrangements.
Because the size and shape of the seat components vary, multiple components must be individually machined, and each seat unit must be assembled from those multiple components, which is expensive from both a material and labor perspective. Furthermore, the weight of such seating units increases with increasing numbers of components.
Therefore, it may be desirable to design a seat frame that minimizes the number of components through an integral leg support design that combines the spreader and leg assembly into a single component. Such an integrated design may improve stress reduction and provide a better load path through the seat frame, as well as reducing weight of the seat unit and improving manufacturing efficiency by eliminating the need for additional machining and assembly steps of separate components.